Gaming | February 9, 2024
Last year, Asus released the ROG Ally, its first console-format gaming laptop. The goal was clearly to compete with the Steam Deck in a constantly growing market. At this moment, it seems too early to talk about an Asus ROG Ally 2, but the Asian company thinks otherwise. The new hardware could arrive sooner than we believed.
In an interview with Techlusive, Arnold Su, the vice president of gaming at Asus India, hinted that the Asus ROG Ally 2 will arrive this year. On the other hand, he said that the product will focus on improving gaming functions rather than refining Windows:
“Most likely, we will launch a second-generation console this year. We will continue to maintain Windows functions, but we will focus more on gaming,” he commented.
Certainly, his statements have surprised the gaming laptop enthusiast community a lot. While it is not unreasonable to think that the Asus ROG Ally 2 is already in development, what is strange is that they intend to launch it in 2024.
Why? It is not just because of the proximity to the predecessor hardware, but also because the Steam Deck, the main rival of the Asus ROG Ally, will not have a second generation soon. Last September, Valve announced that they do not plan to release the Steam Deck 2 in the near future. In the best-case scenario, we will have to wait at least a couple of years to see it in the market.
Valve also explained their reasons: they will not release the Steam Deck 2 until they see an opportunity to introduce innovations that truly make a difference from the previous product. Therefore, they limited themselves to presenting a first revision of their console, which stands out for integrating an OLED screen and offering greater autonomy.
It seems, then, that Asus is thinking of following a completely different philosophy. Although the executive did not talk about features or innovations we can expect from the Asus ROG Ally 2, from his words, we can guess that there may not be many hardware innovations, but there could be in the software. After all, it is true that the current laptop still has plenty of room for improvement in terms of the gaming experience.
Despite this, the Asus ROG Ally 2 has the opportunity to boost its hardware. First, there is the processor. AMD, which manufactures the Z1 Xtreme chip present in the current model, plans to release Strix Point in 2024. This is an APU (CPU + GPU) that could be the starting point for developing new processors for gaming laptops.
Likewise, we imagine that Asus has considered the option of opting for an OLED screen in the ROG Ally 2. This technology represents a quantum leap compared to LCD. It has been more than demonstrated in the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch.
We will have to pay attention to Asus’s plans regarding the ROG Ally 2. Note that if it really sees the light this year, it could create a domino effect among the other manufacturers it competes against.
